Shipe v. Bartholomew

239 S.W. 1020, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 638
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 29, 1922
DocketNo. 6725. [fn*]
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 239 S.W. 1020 (Shipe v. Bartholomew) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Shipe v. Bartholomew, 239 S.W. 1020, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 638 (Tex. Ct. App. 1922).

Opinion

COBBS, J.

Appellee admits that appellant’s statement of the natüre and. result of the case is correct, except as to the construction placed upon appellee’s supplemental answer. The statement is as follows:

“On May 29, 1915, appellees filed their second amended original petition, complaining against appellant M. M. Shipe, appellees E. 0. Bartholomew and Patrick Gaffney, alleging that there was a gravel pit located on out lot No. 76, division D, of the city of Austin; that appellee Bartholomew owned a portion of said gravel' pit 150x200 feet, located on the north end of said out lot, abutting on Thirty-Eighth street, and that appellee Gaffney owned a portion of said out lot 50x275 feet on its southwest corner; that the balance of said pit was owned by appellant Shipe; that a portion of said gravel pit owned by appellees Gaffney and Bartholomew had become filled with water which had become stagnant, constituting a nuisance; that the excavation in said portion of said pit owned by Bartholomew is deeper than the excavation at any other place in said pit; that the water hole on appellee Batholomew’s portion of said pit is the lowest depression in said pit; that appellant Shipe had been engaged for some time in removing gravel from his portion of said pit, particularly from the north and east sides thereof, but ceased after the institution of the suit.
“It is charged that the appellant Shipe and the appellees Bartholomew and Gaffney each had permitted and was maintaining a nuisance on his separate portion of said gravel pit, and praying for a mandatory injunction requiring said parties to drain said gravel pit. I$|Jbis fiat indorsed on said petition, the court set down said application for a temporary mandatory injunction after hearing on June 4, 1915.
“On June 4, 1915, appellee Bartholomew filed his answer to the petition and prayer for mandatory writ of injunction, denying that the water in said pit constituted a nuisance, and admitting that he owned 150x200 feet of said gravel pit, but alleged his ownership was subject to the right of appellant Shipe to remove gravel and clay therefrom, and that he had no power to prevent the removal of gravel and clay therefrom, and no power to enter upon the property and drain the same, alleging that his rights to his portion of the pit were subordinate to the rights of said' appellant Shipe; that he had relinquished all control over said pit, except that he provided in a sale to appellant Shipe that no excavation on the portion of the pit purchased by said Shipe should be made deeper than the excavation on said 150x200 feet owned by appellee Bartholomew.
“On June 4, 1915, hearing was had upon said application for temporary mandatory injunction, and upon said hearing the court entered a judgment and decree, ordering the clerk to issue writs of injunction as prayed for, commanding defendants, and each of them, pending final trial, to drain or. otherwise remove from the premises owned and controlled-by said defendants, respectively, all stagnant water standing thereon, further ordering that the plaintiffs pay $9 of the costs incurred in such proceeding.
“On September 20, 1915, appellee Bartholomew filed his answer to the merits, admitting that he owned a portion of said pit 150x200 feet, and alleged that his ownership thereof was subject to the right of appellant Shipe to remove gravel and clay therefrom; that he had nd right or power to enter upon said property for any purposes, and that his entire right to said property was subject to the right of appellant Shipe; that he had sold all the other portion of said gravel pit formerly owned by him to the appellant Shipe, and relinquished all control over the same, except that he provided .in his contract with Shipe that no excavation should be made and left on said 150x200 feet deeper than the lowest point thereof on June 15, 1912; that he could exercise no right or authority over said gravel pit inconsistent with the right of appellant Shipe to remove gravel and clay therefrom; and that if appellant Shipe had left said pit in such condition as to constitute a nuisance, he (Bartholomew) was in no wise responsible therefor, and was powerless to prevent such unlawful use; that in obedience to said mandatory temporary writ of injunction requiring the defendants to abate the nuisance, he (Bartholomew) at his own expense had the tract of land owned by him entirely drained of surface water at the reasonable expense of $300; that the appellant Shipe was primarily responsible for the said nuisance, and wholly failed to repay him (Bartholomew) any part of the expense, and prayed that, in the event temporay injunction was made permanent, appellant Shipe be required to reimburse him for said expense of abating said nuisance, and prayed for the further sum of $38.90 costs incurred by him.
“On March 11, 1921, appellee Bartholomew filed a supplemental answer, in which he set up and alleged that he had drained said pit at the reasonable expense of $300, and paid $38.90 costs, and prayed that, if the injunction sought were refused, he have judgment against E. F. Fields et al., plaintiffs, for said sums and interest, and further alleged the same facts by reference alleged in his answer of* June 4, 1915, and prayed that if it was held that a nuisance existed, that he have judgment against the appellant Shipe for said sums of money.
“On March 11, 1921, appellant Shipe filed his amended answer to plaintiffs’ petition, denying that he was guilty of maintaining a nuisance, or that any water accumulated on the portion of the pit owned by him, and alleged that, if any water accumulated in said pit, it was on that portion owned by Bartholomew, and that it was not due to any act of his, and expressly denied making any excavation on the portion of the land owned by Bartholomew.
“On March 11, 1921, appellant filed his amended answer to the cross-action of defendant Bartholomew, in which he denied all of the allegations contained in said cross-action, and pleaded that the court had no jurisdiction of the cause, for the reason that it was a suit to abate a nuisance and not for damages; that the court had no jurisdiction with reference to the controversy between Shipe and Bartholomew as to the $339; and further alleged that *1022 the water in the pit accumulated upon the por-tioa of the land belonging to appellee Bartholomew, in which appellant Shipe had no interest and over which he had no control, he having a mere license to take gravel and clay therefrom; that after the granting of said temporary mandatory writ of injunction the ap-pellee Bartholomew drained his land, and in doing so drained all the water out of the pit in question; and that defendant Bartholomew is not entitled to recover anything against appellant Shipe.

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Related

Bartholomew v. Shipe
251 S.W. 1031 (Texas Commission of Appeals, 1923)

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Bluebook (online)
239 S.W. 1020, 1922 Tex. App. LEXIS 638, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/shipe-v-bartholomew-texapp-1922.